Coming off a hard-fought comeback against Syracuse after going down early, men’s soccer did not want Saturday's contest against Brown to start the same way.
On a brisk fall day in Ithaca, men’s soccer (11-2-1, 4-1 Ivy) mounted a furious comeback to beat Brown University (5-6-2, 1-3-1 Ivy) and clinch a berth in the Ivy League tournament.
The game began with disaster for the Red. In just the third minute, a long throw from Brown created chaos in the box, and the Bears were able to poke home a shot to take an early lead.
Cornell would have a chance in the 21st minute, with freshman forward Blake Donahue outpacing his defender and laying off senior forward Westin Carnevale for a shot that missed wide left.
Cornell threatened again in the 43rd minute, with senior forward Sam Latona sending an athletic side volley off the outside of the post.
Halftime would come with Cornell again yet to score. The Red have been held scoreless in the first half of the last six games, being outscored 4-0 in those halves.
But Cornell came out swinging in the second half, taking 15 shots and holding Brown to just two.
Less than 10 minutes into the half, Donahue played a cross in from the left wing to the head of freshman forward Sergio Zapata, who put home the header. However, the assistant referee had raised the flag, and the goal was ruled offside.
In the 73rd minute, Cornell had another painfully close chance, with Zapata playing Carnevale, who was alone on top of the six-yard box. Carnevale had to lunge to get the one-touch shot off and poked the ball past the Brown goalkeeper Henrik Weiper, but the attempt dinged off the post.
With time running out, Cornell substituted sophomore forward Kasper Wollstein for sophomore midfielder Dominic Kolbl to give the Red some more offensive firepower to try to score an equalizer.
It would be in the 80th minute that Cornell finally broke through. Martin played a ball into the box, and Latona put the ball into the net with the bottom of his cleat while in midair.
Latona, with what may have been the goal of the year for the Red, tied the game, but Cornell smelled blood. Almost immediately off the ensuing kickoff, Wollstein beat his defender down the left wing, playing Latona in the box. Latona put a strong left-footed shot on net, but was met with a tremendous kick save from Weiper.
In the 82nd minute, the Red had another fantastic chance, with Miller finding Zapata in the middle of the box. Again, the shot did not have enough juice and was met by Weiper.
Finally, in the 88th minute, the Red completed the comeback. Again crossing it in from the left wing, Martin played a ball through the defense, which met the left foot of junior forward Adam Schaban on one hop. Schaban rocketed home the shot to complete the exhilarating Cornell comeback.
Despite having a heavily offensive lineup on the field, the Red killed the last two minutes of the clock and secured the win — and a spot in the Ivy League tournament.
With this victory, Cornell continues its trend as a phenomenal second-half team, outscoring opponents 11-1 in the second half in the last five games. Opposing defenses are consistently worn down by the seemingly endless rotation of forwards and wingers that Cornell employs. In this game alone, nine players saw action on the attack.
Cornell improves to 21st in the national RPI with this win. Though it still could fall out of contention with a late regular season collapse and first round exit from the Ivy League tournament, this should put the Red in a good spot to take an at-large bid to the 48-team NCAA tournament should it fall short of an Ivy League championship.
After an exhausting stretch of nine games in 28 days, the Red finally gets a full week to rest and prepare for the next contest. Cornell will take to the road to face Harvard at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1. Coverage will be available on ESPN+.
